WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that President Trump is making it easier for him to push the Republican health care bill through the House by helping "bridge gaps" among various GOP factions.

"This president is getting deeply involved," Ryan told reporters at his weekly news conference. "He is helping bridge gaps in our conference. He is a constructive force ... I'm excited that we have a president who likes closing deals ... who wants to get us to the finish line."

Trump, who has invited conservative House Republicans to the White House to discuss health care over pizza and bowling, "is making it easier and better for us to pass health care," Ryan added.

"His listening and negotiating skills are bringing people together," the Wisconsin Republican said. "He goes around the press and connects with people ... that helps bridge gaps in Congress and gets people unified so we can deliver on our promises."

Ryan is pushing to bring the Republican bill, the American Health Care Act, to the House floor for a vote as early as next week. The legislation, which aims to repeal and replace Obamacare, has met with strong resistance from conservatives in the House who think it retains too much of the existing law and moderate Republicans in the Senate who worry that it will hurt low-income residents by phasing out Medicaid.

Despite Ryan's assurances, Trump seemed to be delivering a different message this week on just how much the health care bill can be changed to accommodate the concerns of the various GOP factions.

In an interview Wednesday with Fox News' Tucker Carlson, Trump called the legislation "very preliminary" and said it is "going to be negotiated."

Ryan said the bill will be "improved and refined" in the wake of Monday's analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, which said the legislation would increase the number of uninsured Americans by 24 million by 2026 while reducing the deficit by $337 billion.

But Ryan also said that the bulk of the bill "will stay the way it is" as it makes its way through the House. The bill must stay basically the same to conform to budget rules that prevent Senate Democrats from blocking the bill, Ryan said. It has already been approved by the House Ways and Means Committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee, and the Budget Committee, which narrowly passed it Thursday over conservative objections.

It will go to the Rules Committee next week, and then to the House floor, Ryan said.

Asked about opposition to the bill from Senate Republicans, Ryan said: "I'm the speaker of the House, not the majority leader of the Senate. My job is to move bills through the House."

But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Ryan is setting up GOP members for a fall.

"You see the resistance in the Senate to the House bill," Pelosi said. "Some in the Senate, the Republican senators, are saying 'I hope it dies in the House so we don't even have to consider it.' But if it doesn't die in the House, this Speaker has asked his members to walk the plank on a very bad bill that has damaging consequences across the country that might not even become law. Then they've walked the plank for nothing."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks at the U.S. Capitol on March 16, 2017.(Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo, European Pressphoto Agency)

Ryan said that GOP critics in the Senate have not reached out to him.

"All I would say is senators are not helpless when it comes to the House," he said. "They'll have every opportunity to make amendments."

If the House passes the bill and the Senate changes it, negotiators from both chambers will have to try to reach a consensus on a final bill.

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus said Thursday that they also are working on an amendment to the bill, although they would not provide specifics. They said the amendment, which they described as a major change, would be unveiled soon.

"We’re focused on repealing Obamacare and bringing down the cost of premiums,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the Freedom Caucus, said he worries that the group's criticism of the GOP bill could put it at odds with Trump.

"Are we concerned about this being the Freedom Caucus versus the president? Certainly," Meadows said.

But he said he and other members of the group are committed to holding firm for changes in the legislation.

"It's a policy decision that affects the people we serve," Meadows said.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Wednesday that the House will begin taking up separate health care bills next week that would eliminate anti-trust protection for insurance companies to increase competition, allow small businesses to pool together to buy insurance plans, make it harder for patients to sue their health care providers, and protect workers who get their health care coverage from employers that self-insure by providing a backstop against catastrophic losses.

None of those issues can be included in the larger health care bill because they are not considered budget items, which means Republicans would need Democratic support to pass them in the Senate instead of being able to push the legislation through with just 51 GOP votes. The smaller bills may pass the House but are unlikely to attract Democratic support in the Senate.

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